Latinos Pointing at Stuff with Their Chins in Latin America

Laying in bed close to midnight, I remember watching a movie on my laptop in Barranquilla, Colombia some odd years ago.

It was Goodfellas.

I’ve seen this movie maybe a hundred times.

It’s a good way to pass the time when you got nothing to do.

Anyway, I wasn’t really into watching it that much but was just passing the time before I set to go outside to go for a beer with a dude I knew named Andres.

It was either Friday or Saturday night and we were set to go out for some beer that night.

By the time the movie was over, I think I made a quick meal before heading out.

Once outside, we went to some nearby corner shop place where they always had a few folks standing around drinking beer outside the building.

It was an OK little place for some cheap beer.

While we were there, Andres and I got talking about whatever the subject was and then something caught his interest.

He began doing something with his chin or whatever.

Wasn’t sure what was doing but then he said “look over there.”

While still moving his chin up almost.

Anyway, I looked behind me and saw some cute gal walking by with some dude while trying to get a taxi to stop.

The first one waved them away since it was already occupied but they ended up getting one eventually.

And Andres was simply getting me to look at her mentioning how cute she was.

That was it.

The Point?

This will probably be one of my shortest articles on my website because the point is a fairly minor aspect to life down here in Latin America.

The point being that it’s not uncommon for Latinos in Latin America to point at something by lifting their chin.

I’ve heard some people say that Latinos also “pout their lips” as a way to point at something.

On top of my head, I can’t remember seeing anyone do that in Latin America but supposedly it’s a thing from what I’ve heard.

However, I have seen the “lifting the chin” way to get someone’s attention onto something.

And I’ve seen a handful of other Latinos do this also.

Back when I was in Colombia, my ex-girlfriend’s sister, whose name was Karla, would do the same thing.

I remember the first time I met her when I traveled to their neighborhood by taxi in Barranquilla.

It was late at night and I remember asking them if there was a bar nearby since we were going to get some drinks also.

Karla didn’t say anything like “over there” or whatever.

Simply lifted her chin up towards the direction of something.

Outside of that?

The last time I remember seeing anyone do that was when I was at a house party at a new apartment in Roma Norte of Mexico City.

There was a white Venezuelan chick I met at the party who was living there with her Venezuelan boyfriend.

At the party, she told her boyfriend to pass over a beer and lifted her chin to point at it.

And, being honest, seeing that reminded me of the fact that there are some Latinos who do that down here.

Largely because, at least in my experience, I can’t recall any Mexicans in Mexico City doing this type of thing.

Either the lifting of the chin or pouting their lips to point at something.

Though I could be wrong, it might be the case that Mexicans in Mexico City don’t do it as often or ever?

Truly, I can’t tell you if literally nobody does that down here because I obviously haven’t met every single Mexican.

Maybe those in Tepito do this stuff.

Regardless, that’s the other point to the topic also.

Always a topic I bring up in most points I discuss about life in Latin America.

That being the obvious – geography matters and not every Latin country is the same.

Nor is every city in every country the same.

Different culture and habits you see country to country and city to city.

Though I haven’t see any Mexicans do this, I’ve noticed that Colombians and Venezuelans do it a bit more.

Do other nationalities do this also?

I couldn’t tell you because I don’t remember when interacting with other Latinos.

If you have anything to add, drop a comment below in the comment section.

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Thanks for reading.

Best regards,

Matt